Return To Innocence
by yuki obsidian
Summary: After losing a duel with Yami Bakura, Joey is reverted back to an infant. He will slowly grow back to his original age, but who will take care of him until then?


Return To Innocence By: Yuki Obsidian  
  
I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! or any of its characters, I'm merely borrowing them for my own amusement.  
  
/..../ Ryou talking to Yami Bakura /.../  
  
//...// Yami Bakura talking to Ryou //...//  
  
Chapter One: Losing More Then Just A Duel  
  
It was a well known fact that the Millenium Items each possessed strange and unusual powers, some that not even the guardians of the items, the Yamis, knew about. These powers were locked away, never to be used until that one day when one of them was unexpectantly unearthed...  
  
School was let out for the weekend, and Joey, Yugi, Tristan, Ryou and Téa decided to spend their day in the park since it was such a nice day. They were barely there for half an hour before Mokuba came running up to them, Seto close on his heels.  
  
"Hey guys!" the youngest Kaiba chirped as he crouched down beside them in the grass. "What are you up to?"  
  
"Well, nothing yet, but we were thinking about playing some Duel Monsters," Yugi started before Joey so kindly interrupted him.  
  
"Yeah! And I get first duel, so I'm gonna challenge..." the blonde paused and looked at his possible opponents. There was no way that he was going to challenge either Kaiba or Yugi, since he knew that he wouldn't win, so that left Tristan, Téa, Ryou and possibly Mokuba. Tristan and Téa were way too easy to beat and he'd seen Mokuba duel Yugi back on the island. The kid was good, but Joey knew he could beat him too so that only left...  
  
"Ryou! I challenge you to a duel!" Joey said as he pointed to the white-haired teen.  
  
"What? Me? Are you positive, Joey?" Ryou asked uncertainly. The last time he had dueled, his Yami had brought them to the shadow realm and trapped their souls into their favourite cards. What if that happened again? Or maybe something even worse...  
  
Joey hadn't even thought about what had happened the last time, he just knew that he had never dueled Ryou before and that he was up to the challenge. "Course I am. Or I neva woulda challenged ya in da first place. Now, pull out your deck and let's duel!"  
  
Ryou sighed softy. He could feel his Yami begin to stir to life within him, which wasn't a good sign at all.  
  
/Please, don't cause any trouble, Bakura.../  
  
//It's too late to beg, aibou. He's challenged us and since he has something that I want, there's no backing down now.//  
  
/But... this is Joey! What could he have that you want?/  
  
//Just wait and see...//  
  
The two duelists shuffled their decks as they sat down on opposite sides of the dueling mat that had been spread out on the grass. Everyone else sat on either side of them, eager to watch the turn out of this duel.  
  
That's when things suddenly went wrong. A darkened forcefield appeared around Ryou and Joey, blocking everyone out and keeping them from seeing anything that happened inside.  
  
Kaiba jumped back and pulled Mokuba close to his side. He wasn't sure what was going on, but he didn't want his little brother near it. "What the hell is that?" he asked, looking towards Yugi for the answer.  
  
Yugi's eyes were wide. He knew exactly what had happened since this had happened to him on more then one occasion. The young duelist bit down on his bottom lip as he looked up at Kaiba.  
  
"It's Bakura... he's taken Joey to the Shadow Realm."  
  
~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~  
  
"Ryou! Where da hell did ya bring us? What's goin' on?" Joey demanded to know, as he got to his feet and glared down at the other teen.  
  
Bakura grinned darkly, the change from host to Yami happened so fast that Joey didn't even notice. Bakura motioned for Joey to take a seat again. "I'm not Ryou... and you're in the Shadow Realm because the energy that you emit is very powerful, and I want it. Unfortunately, once I take it from you, it will revert you back to a mere infant. Now, that won't be a problem, will it, Wheeler?"  
  
Joey growled as he clenched his fists to his sides. What the hell was this tomb robber talking about? Whatever it was, Joey wasn't about to go down without a fight and Bakura was well aware of that.  
  
"I guess you do. Tell you what. If I win, then I'm free to take your energy, if I lose, then I'll let you go. Deal?" Bakura asked.  
  
Joey really had no choice, so he sat back down and took five cards from his deck. "Let's duel."  
  
~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~  
  
"I wonder what's going on in there..." Tristan wondered, finally breaking the awkward silence that had befallen upon the group.  
  
"I'm not sure, but I know that it can't be good," Yugi said.  
  
"This is just like the time Pegasus trapped you in the Shadow Realm, Yugi. The same kind of forcefield appeared around you two," Téa brought up.  
  
"Yeah, and we couldn't see anything but we could feel that something was wrong," Tristan added.  
  
"Yes, but this is Bakura. What could he want with Joey?" Yugi asked, but no one could answer that question.  
  
Suddenly the forcefield began to flicker and fade away. Everyone backed up, staying close to one another since they weren't entirely sure what was going on, but there was always safety in numbers.  
  
Finally the forcefield completely vanished, leaving a bewildered Ryou and a small baby laying on top of what had once been Joey's clothes.  
  
"Oh my God!" Yugi exclaimed, looking between Ryou and the tiny infant. "What happened?"  
  
"I... I believe that I won the duel," Ryou said, not noticing the new found glow that shone from his Millenium Ring...  
  
To Be Continued... 


End file.
